Really.
How about theses political parties:
Christian Democratic Union
Christian-Social Union of Bavaria
Major parties, both. (Currrently allied, I think.)
It´s their traditional name. That´s all. They don´t use to preach
anything religious in public like a priest in church. And that for the
same reason like your crucifixes example explains: representing
neutrality in terms of religon as much as possible in a multicultural
society.
How about the federal tax agency taking a cut out of the paychecks of every official member of a church? State mandated tithe, in other words.
"The church tax is only paid by members of the respective church. People who are not member of a church tax-collecting denomination do not have to pay it. Members of a religious community under public law may formally declare their wish to leave the community to state (not religious) authorities. With such a declaration, the obligation to pay church taxes ends. Some communities refuse to administer marriages and burials of (former) members who had declared to leave it."
How about the crucifixes hanging in the classrooms in the PUBLIC schools in Bavaria?
A traditional thing and nobody cared about it until someone was
pissed because of it. However, this is the actual law:
1. Die Anbringung eines Kreuzes oder Kruzifixes in den Unterrichtsräumen einer staatlichen Pflichtschule, die keine Bekenntnisschule ist, verstößt gegen Art. 4 Abs. 1 GG.
In short: It´s not allowed to use crucifixes within a public school
except religious funded/managed schools.
How about muslim women not being allowed to wear a cloth over their hair, as their religion requires them to do?
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopftuchurteil
This issue was the result of a muslim teacher who wanted to wear
a headdress during his job and had nothing to do with public restrictions
about religious clothes at all. (You can wear whatever you want)
In short: The Constitutional Court decided that a teacher has to
represent neutrality, therefore no headclothes for teachers in public
schools - exept in religious funded/managed schools.
Just providing a few counter examples. All is not perfect in this part of the world, either.
That´s true.